The Last Trial by Scott Turow

 This is the 11th in the Kindle County series by Turow, of which I'll admit that I've read only a few. The main character is long-time lawyer Sandy Stern, now in his 80s and in poor health. He has agreed to represent his friend Kiril Pafko but promised his partner and daughter Marta that this will be their last trial before both retire. 

Pafko is a Nobel Prize winner and CEO of a pharma company that has developed a blockbuster drug for lung cancer. Unfortunately, after a year of treatment, some patients suddenly died, apparently of an allergic reaction to the drug.  The questions are: Did Kiril know and hide that knowledge? Did he commit financial fraud by selling his grandchildren's shares in the company before the news leaked out? And should he be charged with murder for the patients who died?

Kiril really seems full of himself, so he is not too likeable. He is convinced Sandy will get him off no matter what he did. He is also a serial philanderer and may not even have come up with the brilliant discovery that won him the Nobel Prize. He won't give Sandy straight answers to any of Sandy's questions, which makes this complicated case even more difficult for his legal team.

This is a very long and very detailed book. At a few points I wish there had been some judicious editing to speed things up a little. But I liked the characters of Sandy, Marta, and Sandy's quirky granddaughter, Pinky (who saves the day more than once) so I kept reading to see how it all ended. I may have to read some of the other books in this series.